Agency Offenders

Many translation agencies are even more guilty of these kinds of
overreaching, handyman-class absurdities because they not only claim
expertise in all subjects but also in “all languages,” a combination
that is mathematically impossible. Expansive claims of language
expertise on their websites list non-existent languages in text overrun
with blatant grammatical errors and obvious misspellings as well as
bizarre contradictions (“We are experts in transesophageal
echocardiography….and we also do all subjects and languages!”)

Expertise in the Translation Industry

What first jumps out at language professionals from this research –
aside from the refreshing scientific explanation of the universal
absence of “young adult experts” anywhere in the language industry – is
how convincingly it simultaneously dismantles the plague of claims of
expertise based on “a natural talent for languages” or “long residence
in foreign countries” or a “passion for things foreign” or “training in
the most sophisticated Spanish in Latin America” (seriously?) and other
specious silliness that pops up all over translators’ resumes. The point
it drives home is this – there are no short-cuts, least of all those that are accidents of birth or circumstance or personal imagination.

An inevitable consequence of “We Do Everything” marketing so
prevalent in the commodity sector of the translation industry is that it
leads customers to the conclusion that “doing everything” is easy.
It requires no special expertise because no special expertise is
claimed by the providers. So translators and agencies in this sector are
left to fight over market share for what they themselves portray as an indistinguishable product, which by definition makes it a commodity.